Gaurav Gandhi, who first joined Viacom in 2010, helped in growing the Viacom18 franchise overseas and leading its commercial functions during its early days

Prior to Viacom18, Gaurav Gandhi has served as executive VP, business operations and content sales at NDTV Imagine Ltd and VP-commercial and business planning at Star TV. Photo: Twitter

New Delhi:Gaurav Gandhi, chief operating officer, Viacom18 Digital Ventures, that runs the video streaming platform Voot , has quit the company after eight years of service. Voot is Viacom’s three-year-old digital service that offers content in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali, among others.

Gandhi, who first joined Viacom in 2010 and initially worked with IndiaCast, the distribution company of TV18 and Viacom18 , helped in growing the Viacom18 franchise overseas and leading the commercial functions of the company during its early days.

Since 2015, he has headed the advertising-led video streaming service, Voot. The platform currently has access to Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd’s content library, including films produced, shows on its flagship entertainment channel Colors as well original web series.

Prior to Viacom18, Gandhi has served as executive vice-president, business operations and content sales at NDTV Imagine Ltd and vice-president-commercial and business planning at Star TV, besides business roles at Turner India and Madison Communications.

According to the media and entertainment industry report by lobby group Ficci along with consulting firm EY, Voot ranks fifth in the list of top video OTT apps of 2017.

“Gaurav has contributed significantly to Viacom18’s growth journey. He has led an extremely capable team to make VOOT a brand that is loved by its consumers,” said Sudhanshu Vats, group chief executive officer, Viacom18, in a statement. “Gaurav has been a passionate and driven colleague whose counsel I have always valued. On behalf of all of us at Viacom18, I would like to thank him for his contribution and wish him the very best for his future endeavours.”

While Gandhi’s future plans remain unclear, Viacom18 is expected to announce a replacement for him soon.